"Guys are hanging out in the street, doing things they're not supposed to be doing, loitering," says a diner owner at 29th and First. "We're scared to go outside," says a nurse working near a men's shelter by Bellevue. "You're catching people urinating," says a far East Village resident.

The Post claims a drop in quality-of-life enforcement as the cause; the NYPD says more q-of-l summonses are being handed out than in Giuliani time, and that they're "now strategizing to reduce complaints specific to individual neighborhoods." But can they head off a critical mass of squeegee men and public urinators before someone has to start making new Death Wish movies and we can move back to Manhattan?